The taxicab driver shot during an attempted robbery in St. Paul was accustomed to working on Thanksgiving, but his daughter had persuaded him to take the holiday off this year.

Pat Burkman, 51, was going to spend the day with family, including his 2-year-old granddaughter. Instead, his family will have to visit him in the hospital as he recovers from a gunshot wound to the stomach.

“He realizes that if the bullet had gone a fraction of an inch either way, his life could have been taken from him,” said Nicole Evenson, Burkman’s only child. “My dad is a very strong believer; he’s got a very strong faith. I really believe that someone from above was looking out for him.”

A man Burkman didn’t know tried to rob him Monday night in St. Paul’s Hamline-Midway area. Burkman, a cabdriver for 30 years who has no insurance, wasn’t working at the time but was driving his cab.

Evenson and a longtime friend said he might have been targeted for robbery because of his work.

Cabdrivers are “wearing a big target on their back” but they don’t make a lot of money, said Rome Hanson, who has known Burkman for about 15 years. Hanson used to drive cabs and that’s how the two met.

“It is incredibly dangerous out there,” Hanson said of cabdrivers’ work.

Police were called about the shooting in the 1700 block of Thomas Avenue at 9:48 p.m. Monday. Burkman had parked his cab and was walking to a building “when a guy came around the corner really fast,” Evenson said.

The man addressed Burkman as “cabbie” or “cabdriver” and then said, “Give me your money,” Evenson said. Burkman said he didn’t have any money.

The would-be robber fired a shot in the air “to let my dad know he had a real gun and then pointed the gun at my dad and fired,” Evenson said. He didn’t know he was shot right away — “he put his hand on his stomach and saw the blood,” she said.

The shooter ran away. Police were still looking for him.

Burkman underwent surgery and is expected to be in the hospital at least through the week’s end, Evenson said. He doesn’t have insurance because his employer didn’t offer it, his daughter said.

Hanson, who started the Ben Doran Foundation in St. Paul with Maggie Doran after her 15-year-old son Ben was murdered, is trying to help Burkman by looking into funds available for crime victims.

Burkman, who grew up on St. Paul’s East Side, enjoys being a cabdriver because of the people he gets to meet but found it hard to make ends meet, Evenson said. He usually worked Thanksgiving to try to make extra money, she said.

Evenson described her father as a caring man.

“If somebody approached him and said, ‘I’ve got five kids at home and they need food and diapers and I don’t have a job and I’m broke, can you spare a couple dollars?’ … my dad would have said, ‘My cab’s in back, let’s take you up to Wal-Mart and get some diapers,” she said.

Evenson and Hanson are also planning a fundraiser for reward money, Hanson said.

The suspect is described as black and in his early 20s, 5 feet 11 inches to 6 feet 3 inches tall, with a thin build. He was wearing a gray hooded sweat shirt and had a bandana over his face. Anyone with information is asked to call police at 651-291-1111.

“We really want to get this person caught, so he doesn’t have a chance to do this to somebody else, if he hasn’t already,” Evenson said.

Mara Gottfried has been a Pioneer Press reporter since 2001, mostly covering public safety. Gottfried lived in St. Paul as a young child and returned to the Twin Cities after graduating from the University of Maryland. You can reach her at 651-228-5262.

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